Nature or Nurture Ch. 65-67

'You will see me tomorrow evening at St James', Bosie. I'm sorry we cannot tell anyone about your heroism, but I'll rub it in privately the coming week. You are a true hero, my pupil, and I'm so proud of you!'

His young friend's eyes shine when he gets into George's carriage, and then Vincent hugs Mr Grey once more.

'You really stood up against him, Mr Grey, I commend you. I'm glad you didn't fall to dust, and I hope you'll stay as young and as beautiful as ever.'

'I suppose I better give up hope that you'll ever call me Dorian again?'

'I'm afraid that may be best, Mr Grey, I have always found it very difficult to call you by your first name, even though I quite liked you at one time and did my very best. I'm sorry.'

'Not as sorry as I am, Mr Vincent. I hoped we could be friends again, try to get over the past.'

'I'm going to lead a very quiet life from now on, we'll probably see each other rarely. But when we next meet, I will try. Fare well, Mr Grey!'

'Fare well, Mr Vincent, fare well.'

And with a last wave, they're off.

When Vincent comes back in, there is a discussion going on about Father Nicholas and his witch-hunters. George is wondering whether Lukas and Adison should practise magic where he can witness them doing it, and Adison is arguing to let him watch.

'He practised magic in front of all of us, and his talent is out there for his witch-hunters to see. He cannot betray us because he is one of us. That doesn't mean he will get away with what he did without some profound apologies.

He felt sincerely sorry for what had been done to those men, I do think he is a good man, but still looking for a new way to handle things.'

'But why risk your lives? What did he do to deserve a reward? I thought he rather deserved punishment.'

George is very protective of Lukas, that is very clear.

'I want to show him my commitment to those who are helpless against the world,' Lukas says.

'I admire him, and I will hear what he has to say for himself before I judge him.'

'I don't know any other people who have done so much for the poor in this city as the two of you, Lukas,' Tristan observes.

'If you get into trouble, I'll help you out. But I think you are right, I think Father Nicholas will prove a true ally.'

By now, everyone is so incredibly tired that they simply cannot make sense anymore, so Tristan orders his carriage and takes all of them home. For a moment they are in doubt to take Catherine with them, but she will be very much disappointed not to have her day of fun with her friends, so Catherine will stay with Bertha, Frances will bring her home in the afternoon, hopefully after Father Nicholas has left.

When Adison and Vincent get home, Victor and Mina are not in the main part of the house. Though it would have been nice to talk for another half-hour, it is shockingly late, and they both have work to do the next day so they turn in and spend some more time on each other instead.

'Were you at all afraid, Adison?' Vincent asks, as he relishes the feeling of being warm and safe under the blankets of their very own bed, with his beloved's curves familiar and soft under his loving hands.

Adison is obviously fighting sleep, she has gone way too deeply once again, somehow mages cannot seem to keep measure in any way. But she enjoys his touch on her body, and strokes his absently, as she has done so many times before.

'I had great difficulty to find fear, Vincent,' is her honest reply, 'I knew what to do for Mina, and somehow I just couldn't believe my creature would let you be taken when he promised he wouldn't. Did he take over at some point? You did seem to lose it at some point, was that him?'

'I'm afraid that was me, Adison, losing my self-control all by myself for the very first time. I did realize what I was doing after a minute or so, and also realized rage was the one emotion that made me vulnerable to him.

So I countered it with my feelings for you, by reliving the moment you accepted me. And then I got a little carried away by those memories.

But I broke the immobility spell all by myself, I just wanted to be rid of the disgusting old man and decided to strangle him, but of course that didn't work. I should've taken my sword to him, like you did in the end. You ever were the smartest of us, my love.'

'I'm actually glad I killed him and you didn't have to,' Adison states, 'as your beloved I felt it was my duty to protect you, and I'm glad I did the dirty job this time, you might feel bad about it and I feel no remorse at all.

I wasn't entirely awake, but wasn't that hot, to have Mina feed on you! I can imagine how you'd want to sleep with her after feeling her suck your veins. Why do you suppose that is? Do you think vampires started out as a more benevolent species?'

'I'm quite sure they must have, why else would they be so protective of their loved ones? Why would Mina know where a person is who has shared blood with her, and how he is feeling? I remember that night with her when I was still Heathcliff in ever more detail, and she was not evil at all that time, not that night, she was caring, and sweet, and very sad.'

'Maybe Lukas can help her cope with those memories, he knows she suffers from them, maybe he will dare Victor's jealousy to make her feel better.'

'As the master of love, Lukas can't not know what it is like to be bitten by a vampire, it's the hottest thing possible. He'll be tempted to make love to her, and rightly so.'

Vincent seems to think that it is unavoidable they will make love sometime, and frankly, Adison cannot imagine it not happening, though as people Mina and Lukas are not as closely matched as Lukas and Adison herself are.

Somehow the events of the night seem difficult to talk about, they keep getting distracted by other subjects, and no matter how pleasant that is, they are very tired, and after half an hour they snuggle even closer and go to sleep.

Just before Adison drops off, she hears a really tiny voice.

'Do you think the Master was right, do you think we have a baby coming?'

That is so cute, he was afraid to ask after she failed to respond to Melissa's question and apology. But to talk about it in their familiar bed, as opposed to a room full of strangers or near strangers, is quite a difference.

Adison has no trouble at all talking about it with Vincent himself, nor with any of their friends. She gives her beloved a reassuring kiss, and replies calmly, 'I don't know, love, but we'll probably find out tomorrow, with Lukas and Melissa showing up to perform some magic. I'm as curious to know as you are. Catherine would say it's as good as certain, with your semen quicker and more durable than anyone else's.'

'She really has all kinds of faith in me, of course a daughter is supposed to, but still it's kind of nice, to have someone approve of everything one does. Except this last raid, she was set against it from the start, and didn't hesitate to let me know. Well, I'm glad it's over, too.'

'And so am I. Now we enjoy life. Good night, love.'

'Good night. I'm glad you didn't mind my asking. Love you.'

After a cosy morning together in bed, Adison needs to see a few patients before lunch, and though she is still a bit tired, the cases are not difficult ones and Victor is there with her. Their friends arrive just after lunch, and Father Nicholas is expected an hour or two later, so they decide to see to Mina first.

Paul has already thought of a solution, it is merely a matter of shaping a permanent shield and putting it in place, a little job expected to take little time. But first he insists on putting a shield on the entire house, to prevent magic used inside from being visible from the outside.

He asks Adison's assistance, and she is pleased to give it, for Paul has taught her a lot and he still explains everything he does so Adison can do it by herself a next time.

'I worked this out with Tristan, he's very strong on theoretical magic, and warding, so there will be some chanting involved, his path is that of high magick, and that is very formal and takes a lot of preparation. But it lasts forever, and cannot be traced back to any person once it is done.'

Though Adison can feel that Lukas' way of practising magic is her way, too, it is still very important to learn about other traditions, and high magick is one of the youngest, but also one of the strongest. 'It is not very subtle,' Paul observes, as they place priceless silver objects all along the inner boundaries of the house, 'I mean, can you see us do this where there may be witnesses? This is clearly a tradition founded by people who have the property and the funds to work magic in total privacy.

My own tradition is much more subtle, using just the magic power a person can generate himself, or at most that from the ley-lines, no components or archaic gestures or chants. But it does take more time for the magic to settle, and it tends to last for a mere decade or so. Still, these days we borrow each other's knowledge freely.'

In half an hour, the warding is done, and Paul sits down in the sitting-room with Mina, to apply her shield. He raises some of his personal power, shapes a blue protective light following the contours of her body roughly, then causes it to settle really close to her skin.

'Done,' he says, when the light has faded, 'magic will now slide from you as it will from talented people's more active shields. It does not protect against really powerful magic, nothing can do that except a talent of your own, but you described this spell as being almost nonchalant, and such a low-level spell will no longer be able to harm you. Now Lukas has something to discuss with you, I'll leave you alone with him for a few moments.'

And Paul does indeed, asking Victor to show him his progress with several experiments they have thought up together. Paul earns his keep with steam-related appliances, but he has a true obsession with electricity, like Victor, and they can discuss their theories and the results of their experiments for hours.

Adison and Vincent meanwhile take Melissa to the basement, they have decided to receive their extraordinary patients somewhere less delicate than the practice, those are big men and potentially dangerous, and the practice is stuffed with breakables, not a good place to cope with possible violence.

Those guys were meek enough in their possessed state, but Vincent knows what kind of criminals the Master used to consort with, and if Lukas and Adison manage to restore their true natures, it might backfire.

'I'm staying with you all the time, Adison,' Vincent says, 'and I hope Mina will be able to stick around, too, one of us for each of them.'

'I'm glad you and Melissa thought of what would happen afterwards,' Adison replies, 'for I didn't think beyond freeing their minds.'

'Lukas and I have been through the process before,' Melissa observes, 'it can be quite dangerous, though Lukas is very experienced by now. Better let him do the first one, and let Paul anchor you. He's very steady.'

'Melissa,' Adison asks quietly, 'can you check whether it is true?'

Without asking for an explanation to that rather cryptic question, Melissa replies, 'Sure. Want me to do it right now, before any of the others come in? Frances was right, it's pretty easy.'

At Adison's nod, she blanks out for less than a second.

'It's true. Do you want to know all of it?'

That does require an explanation, Adison knows Melissa can see through anything, what more can she tell?

But she need not formulate her question, at her questioning look Melissa offers, 'Do you want to be surprised eight months from now? Or do you want to know straight away?'

Vincent very carefully observes, 'I'd like to know for some reason. And Melissa, Adison trusts everything will be all right, but I'm not so sure. I'm not a normal man, and my seed was not normal. Will this baby be all right?'

'It's better to let Lukas check that,' Melissa replies, 'he has much more experience with it, from checking out mothers-to-be in the slums. I usually guard his back when I accompany him on his healing trips, I dare not get involved as well unless it's a truly difficult one, and then we take Paul or George along.'

Mina meanwhile is having some uncomfortable moments with Lukas in the sitting-room. They have never bonded, where Vincent and Adison took the little fellow to their hearts from the first, Mina has always kept him at a distance.

She frankly has no idea why, he's always friendly and open, there is no reason to distrust him at all. He's an alien, but Mina is, too.

And Mina really wants to keep helping him to treat the poor of the city, she feels it is the right way to atone for her past, but still she feels like a stranger in his company. The last few times, Adison kept them together as a team, but Adison will not always be part of their efforts, she has a little daughter that she cannot leave with Victor every evening. Mina needs to get a grip on what is wrong between Lukas and herself, and get over it. He's very focussed right now, and he is focussed on her, which makes her very uncomfortable.

Is it the way he seems to look into her soul? Is it his kind concern towards her that makes her feel vulnerable, weak? Is Mina afraid of being weak?

'Mina, I will not try to seduce you,' Lukas says, 'I do not sleep with every woman I meet, though it may look that way. I just need a lot of love, especially after practising my healing, and I like to accept some hugs and kisses, but I'm not out to get more. Please believe me.

There is something profound that is keeping you from really enjoying your life, and I'd like to help you with it. Will you allow me to help?'

'How do you know it will work, Lukas? I'm not a real person, you know that.'

'I don't know it will work, Mina, but I want to try. There is always something sad about you, you feel so much remorse, you are never really happy though you've found what everyone is looking for: true love. You're in pain, and I can help you, it's what I do, I really cannot keep from wanting to help people.'

'I don't think I'm afraid of your trying to seduce me, Lukas, I don't think that is why I have kept a certain distance towards you. Can it be that I'm afraid to be helped, afraid to be proven weak? I've lived on the streets for years, Lukas, if I had shown weakness I would have died the true death soon after. Some part of me is still out there, keeping up the façade of being all-powerful, deserving to be the boss.

And that part recognizes your need to help people, to help me face my past, relive everything I've done, face the shame and the guilt, allow myself be weak. I think that is why I have avoided you, but since I really want to work with you without Adison between us all the time, it's time I let you have your way with me, time to face my weakness.'

She can feel his arms around her now, he can move pretty quietly with those hard hoofs of his, and surprisingly it is good. Looking at him, she does not see the cheeky young rascal her friends seem to love so much, but a much older, much wiser adult man with the same rather plain face.

Lying in Lukas' arms is different from being in Victor's, to Victor she is still the strong one, despite Victor's brazen attitude he is actually a very sensitive man who is not afraid to show her his reticence towards other people, and his fear of being left all by himself. He has been by himself far too long before Adison and Vincent took him under their wings.

But Lukas, he is much stronger than he looks, mentally as well as physically. His embrace makes Mina feel safe and very much loved, and she feels herself relaxing in his arms. He smells very comforting as well, musky, but not like an animal, much lighter.

'Good,' his voice says, almost hypnotic by now, 'I think you are ready to face your demons. Will you share your memories with me?'

How bad can anything be, with friends like Lukas to help her face it? She decides she wants to be free of guilt and happy, and says 'Yes' wholeheartedly.

And then she feels a touch on her mind, a light touch that invites her along, and as she accepts it Lukas takes her back in time into her memories, reviewing them until they come upon one that hurts or plagues her with remorse.

Whenever that happens, Lukas goes over and over it with her, until the sting is taken out and she can look upon the memory as just that, a thing from the past, to take a lesson from but not to rule her life anymore, further and further back in time.

Part of Mina is ashamed to have a friend see the despicable things she has done, but Lukas observes that she felt remorse even as she did them, and that she was unable to deny her master and her evil nature.

He lets her feel his forgiveness for her deeds, and somehow his opinion matters.

Further and further back they go, to the moment she was seduced to be turned by a man she thought to be the love of her life, she was so naïve, then further back to her youth with the loss of her beloved brother, the only person who ever truly cared about her until Victor came into her life.

The people from her youth, her brother, Vanessa Yves, her adored father who was always away or spending time on her brother, her soured mother who didn't hesitate to share her disappointment in life and husband with her young children, the staff hired by her stern father, who tended to rule her mother's household and her children, to resume their rightful place as soon as their master came home.

All her memories are reviewed until the sting has gone out of them, and then they shortly visit her intense feelings for Victor, the love they share, the certainty of always having someone to rely on, the intense physical bond his blood in her veins gives, the night she killed six men to protect him, her fear that night to lose him, her constant awareness of his whereabouts and his mental state through the blood that binds them together.

But also her love for her friends, who spared her wretched life and sacrificed so much comfort for her safety. Her staggering night of love with Vincent, with both of them finally letting go of every restraint their superior strength lays upon them. The heady taste of Vincent's blood, and the rush it gives her.

No stone is left unturned, no feeling unexplored, and still Mina doesn't feel as if Lukas has invaded her privacy, somehow he is above suspicion, he must have experienced people's most intimate feelings time and time again, but he merely detaches them and moves on, he cannot let his own life be coloured by that of the countless lives he has touched.

As their minds separate, Mina feels an overwhelming love for this man, who would ever have thought that cheeky rascal contained such compassion, such feeling for others. He looks a bit worse for wear with the effort, but he smiles at her sweetly and lets himself be held and stroked with obvious relish. She feels a strong urge to kiss him, and after an inquiring gaze, is that really what she wants?, he accepts her offer and they kiss intimately.

Strangely enough, that seems to do him a lot of good, and he perks up quickly.

'I have unlimited power,' he says in answer to her unspoken question, 'it just needs a few moments to replenish somehow. A little love helps. I used to need love big time after a healing, and power from someone else. Healing nearly killed me a few times in the past, but I never regretted even one. Can we sit like this a few moments more? Or will we be in trouble if the doctor comes in?'

'You've felt our bond, Lukas, so you know Victor will never be angry at a decision I make. But it might hurt him to see me in another man's arms. Still, that is something he needs to learn, and you've also seen how much he has grown already.'